Simple Acts of Kindness: Raising Kind Kids

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by Jennifer E. Lee

My family met for lunch at a restaurant, as we do every Saturday. We ate as usual, but just before the bill arrived, something quite unusual occurred. Our waitress informed us, “Oh, it’s been taken care of.” We all looked at one another in confusion. What did she mean the bill had been taken care of?

“See that man over there?” the waitress pointed. “He paid your bill.”

Needless to say, we were all shocked. Although we always tried to save money as evidenced by the stack of coupons on the table, our bill was certainly not small since there were six of us eating. This was an event that does not happen every day; in fact, it had never happened to us before that day.

Gratefully, we all walked over to the family who had paid our bill. They were just like us. They were a family out to eat together on a Saturday afternoon, enjoying each other’s company. Why they decided to pay our bill, we will never know, but all of us will remember the day when a complete stranger bought us lunch.

Simple acts of kindness happen all the time, every day, all around us. From someone holding the door, to someone letting us turn first while driving, a simple act of kindness can make someone’s bad day… the best day. As parents, we must teach this to our children and show them why kindness is so important and so contagious.

Benefits of Simple Acts of Kindness

Children are surrounded by caretakers who do things for them daily. Parents provide basic needs and love their children unconditionally. Teachers devote their lives to teaching children important knowledge and life skills that will stick with them throughout their lifetimes. Brought up in the ME generation where instant gratification and self-gain reigns supreme, children need to learn to return the favor and reciprocate kindness as their duty to become respectful and contributing citizens.

My fiancé, four-year old daughter, and I were at the post office. On the way to our car after mailing our letters, my fiancé noticed something in the bushes. He walked over and pulled out a black wallet stuffed with personal identification items and credit cards.

“What is it?” I asked him.

“It’s someone’s wallet,” he told me.

He found the owner’s phone number inside and called, but no one answered.

“I know where this is,” he replied, looking at the address on the owner’s driver’s license. “Let’s just take it to her house.”

We got into the car and drove to the wallet owner’s house and as we pulled into her driveway, I thought, how many people would actually do this? How many people must have walked by that wallet in the bushes and done nothing?

The woman was home and was so grateful to my fiancé for returning her wallet. It had apparently been stolen from her car parked in the post office parking lot and although the cash was gone, she had the rest of her items returned.

“That was very nice of you to return her wallet,” I told my fiancé.

“It’s what any good person would do,” he simply replied.

In the Schools

The benefits of teaching children to do simple acts of kindness are far and wide. In schools and during activities, children will feel a greater sense of community and a more positive environment, both of which are essential to successful learning.

Paul M. Reinert, Ph.D., Wycallis Elementary School Principal and Director of Curriculum and Instruction in the Dallas School District, believes it is important for children to be kind to their peers, teachers, and all others at all times. Reinert states, “I believe it is as simple as the Golden Rule. I wish to be treated with kindness.”

It will reduce bullying and teach tolerance. If children are taught to help their fellow classmates and peers instead of compete against or judge them, bullying would be reduced significantly. Differences are obvious, especially when children start to reach school age and become more self-aware, but by teaching simple acts of kindness and creating a sense of school and classroom community, all children will feel included and less likely to bully or be bullied.

Reinert believes that bullying would stop if children and adults were kinder to one another. The key, according to Reinert, is to effectively teach and practice kindness. “If all students were kind, bullying would stop because bullying, by its very nature, is unkind behavior. If it were only that simple,” Reinert contends. While a world without bullying seems like a perfect society, simply teaching our children to be kind may help turn the bully into a best friend.

Organizations for Resources and Participation

Teaching Tolerance (teachingtolerance.org) promotes a Mix It Up at Lunch Day. The website states, “It’s a simple act with profound implications.” Students are encouraged to eat lunch with peers they may not know or who are outside their cultural or social. This simple act of kindness of befriending someone new could have potentially huge positive results.

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation (randomactsofkindess.org) works to inspire people to practice kindness and pass it on to others. The Foundation offers free resources for parents, educators and community leaders to encourage random acts of kindness.

The Josh Stevens Foundation (joshstevensfoundation.org) believes in “catching kids in the act of being genuinely kind.” Their mission is “to recognize and reward a child's heartfelt kind acts, and to inspire more children to be more kind, more often.” The foundation offers ideas and ways to recognize children caught being kind.

What Parents Can Do

Encourage your child to serve others. It can be as simple as letting someone go first in line, to writing and sending cards, to helping your elderly neighbor water her flowers. If your child is really interested, volunteer! There is nothing as simple and rewarding as volunteering your time to people and causes in need.

What Educators Can Do

Create a challenge for your classroom or school. Participate in the RAK Education Pilot Program from the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. Bring the Josh Stevens Foundation to your campus! They offer kindness packages that include kindness cards, bracelets, t-shirts and best practices to promote and reward simple acts of kindness. Promote positivity in the classroom and entire school environment.

What Everyone Can Do

Be a role model and show children how simple acts of kindness benefit both the giver and the receiver. The result? A better (and kinder!) world.

Check out our website at nepafamily.com for Simple Acts of Kindness examples you can use with your family.

Share Your Acts of Kindness with Us

Encourage your child to start a ‘kindness initiative’ within his school. Then, tell us about it! Share the details at facebook.com/nepafamily. Who knows. Maybe you’ll win something!

Read about what one little girl did:

Eleven-year-old Leslie Moshman, has a goal to collect 3,000 pairs of colorful socks and other personal

items, such as underwear, for foster kids. “I was in foster care for five years. I was mostly given plain white socks to wear. I hated those socks! The other kids had colorful socks with fun designs and cartoon characters. It was another way I felt different. I haven't worn white socks at all since I was adopted in 2010! Now I want to help other kids feel special too. Socks may seem like a small thing, but it's sometimes the little things that mean a lot to a kid.”

Within 24 hours of posting this project on Facebook, donations were received to purchase more than 200 pairs of socks.